Cards Against Humanity campaigns to encourage voting, expose personal data abuse
(2024/10/11)
- Reference: 1728603128
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/10/10/cards_against_humanity_us_election/
- Source link:
The troublemakers behind the party game Cards Against Humanity have launched a campaign demonstrating how easy it is to buy sensitive personal data about American voters, while simultaneously encouraging those Americans to plan how to cast a vote in the upcoming presidential election.
The "Cards Against Humanity Pays You to Give a Shit" [1]campaign uses US citizens' personal data obtained from a broker to identify whether individuals voted in the 2020 US presidential election and how they lean politically. Those who didn't vote are asked to put info into the website, promise to vote in the upcoming election, make a voting plan, "and publicly post 'Donald Trump is a human toilet'" in exchange for up to $100.
The amount paid out will vary, depending on a voter's home state and political leanings. Democrat-leaning voters in the so-called swing states that will likely decide the presidential election under the US Electoral College system are eligible for the $100. People in other states – and, presumably, Republicans – get less.
[2]
Of course, the whole thing needs money to work, so CAH, through its [3]recently registered CAH Super political action committee (PAC), is also offering a $7.99 expansion pack for its signature game, themed around the 2024 election, with all proceeds going to pay lazy voters to leave the house on November 5. The party game provider also put up $100,000 of its own to fund the effort.
[4]
[5]
Super PACs, for those lucky enough not to be subject to the US electoral system, are tax-exempt organizations allowed to raise unlimited funds to spend on political campaigns, often without having to disclose the source of donations. The only restriction on Super PAC activity is that they can't coordinate with candidates or political parties.
If you're thinking the campaign is illegal – given it feels a lot like paying someone to vote – CAH assures visitors to the campaign's website that what it's doing is totally OK, somehow.
[6]
"Cards Against Humanity is exploiting a legal loophole," the org explains. "This whole thing should probably be illegal – so quick, give us your money before they change the law!"
[7]FTC secures first databroker settlement banning sale of sensitive location data
[8]US elections have never been more secure, says CISA chief
[9]Starlink was offered for free to those hit by Hurricane Helene. It is not entirely free
[10]Elon Musk reins in Grok AI bot to stop election misinformation
Paying someone to vote is illegal in the US under [11]multiple [12]laws .
The Federal Election Commission told The Register it couldn't comment on specific cases like this one, and we were unable to connect with a campaign finance expert despite reaching out to several.
But a PAC paying someone to do voting-adjacent things is not illegal. Indeed, America PAC – Elon Musk's political vehicle, this week [13]launched a campaign that offers $47 to people who refer voters to sign a petition.
The New York Times [14]article about that campaign quotes campaign finance lawyer Brendan Fischer as saying it is legal. On X, Fischer [15]wrote : "America PAC is ultimately spending money for voter data, which PACs and campaigns do all the time … but typically political groups pay just a few pennies per name, not $47 each."
[16]
CAH's campaign is clearly not paying for votes. We asked the org to explain its legal position, but have not received a reply at the time of publication.
But for what it is worth, CAH's campaign website detects visitors' locations and if they are outside the US does not allow them to purchase the expansion pack. That's a nod to US law that prohibits foreigners from making political donations – and the fact that buying the cards is technically not a purchase but a donation to the CAH Super PAC.
Personal data is no joke
The campaign's goal is obvious: prodding people to vote for anyone other than Donald Trump. But a bonus is spotlighting how easy it was for CAH to obtain personal data.
[17]
Data pulled on a voter from the CAH website – Click to enlarge
Put your phone number into the site, along with a few personal details, and it spits back party registration, whether or not you voted, and your political lean, among other data points.
To quote CAH, "It's pretty f**ked up."
"We formed a Super PAC and bought the personal voting records of every American citizen from a data broker we found on the internet," the game publisher wrote. "We got your partisan lean from the same data broker who sold us your voting history. You wouldn't believe how easy it was for us to get this stuff."
Data brokers – who scrape, harvest, buy and compile all sorts of personal data into dossiers that are ideally anonymized (but obviously aren't always, as in this case) – have been the bane of privacy advocates for years, and consumer groups have [18]long fought to restrict their activities and ability to access sensitive information such as [19]attitudes to abortion .
Congress has [20]passed a bill to ban foreign companies or apps from buying data that describes US consumers, but an [21]attempt to bar the US government from doing so has faced opposition from the Biden administration and appears dead in the US Senate.
Maybe the election – and the campaigns from CAH and America PAC – will change that. ®
Get our [22]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.apologize.lol/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zwii8TK4FuHbq-6fef4DdAAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/detail?cmte=C00885426&cycle=2024
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zwii8TK4FuHbq-6fef4DdAAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zwii8TK4FuHbq-6fef4DdAAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zwii8TK4FuHbq-6fef4DdAAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/15/infosec_in_brief/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/08/election_tech_is_fine_says/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/08/free_starlink_hurricane_helene/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/28/grok_election_misinformation/
[11] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2010-title42/html/USCODE-2010-title42-chap20-subchapI-A-sec1973i.htm#:~:text=No%20person%2C%20whether%20acting%20under,or%20aiding%20any%20person%20to
[12] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/597
[13] https://x.com/america/status/1842978982444322816
[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/us/politics/elon-musk-47-dollars-petition.html
[15] https://x.com/brendan_fischer/status/1843488550291157244
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zwii8TK4FuHbq-6fef4DdAAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/10/10/cah-voting-data-results.jpg
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/15/cfpb_data_broker_crackdown/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/15/data_broker_location_abortion/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/congress_votes_unanimously_to_ban/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/18/congress_data_broker_surveillance/
[22] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The "Cards Against Humanity Pays You to Give a Shit" [1]campaign uses US citizens' personal data obtained from a broker to identify whether individuals voted in the 2020 US presidential election and how they lean politically. Those who didn't vote are asked to put info into the website, promise to vote in the upcoming election, make a voting plan, "and publicly post 'Donald Trump is a human toilet'" in exchange for up to $100.
The amount paid out will vary, depending on a voter's home state and political leanings. Democrat-leaning voters in the so-called swing states that will likely decide the presidential election under the US Electoral College system are eligible for the $100. People in other states – and, presumably, Republicans – get less.
[2]
Of course, the whole thing needs money to work, so CAH, through its [3]recently registered CAH Super political action committee (PAC), is also offering a $7.99 expansion pack for its signature game, themed around the 2024 election, with all proceeds going to pay lazy voters to leave the house on November 5. The party game provider also put up $100,000 of its own to fund the effort.
[4]
[5]
Super PACs, for those lucky enough not to be subject to the US electoral system, are tax-exempt organizations allowed to raise unlimited funds to spend on political campaigns, often without having to disclose the source of donations. The only restriction on Super PAC activity is that they can't coordinate with candidates or political parties.
If you're thinking the campaign is illegal – given it feels a lot like paying someone to vote – CAH assures visitors to the campaign's website that what it's doing is totally OK, somehow.
[6]
"Cards Against Humanity is exploiting a legal loophole," the org explains. "This whole thing should probably be illegal – so quick, give us your money before they change the law!"
[7]FTC secures first databroker settlement banning sale of sensitive location data
[8]US elections have never been more secure, says CISA chief
[9]Starlink was offered for free to those hit by Hurricane Helene. It is not entirely free
[10]Elon Musk reins in Grok AI bot to stop election misinformation
Paying someone to vote is illegal in the US under [11]multiple [12]laws .
The Federal Election Commission told The Register it couldn't comment on specific cases like this one, and we were unable to connect with a campaign finance expert despite reaching out to several.
But a PAC paying someone to do voting-adjacent things is not illegal. Indeed, America PAC – Elon Musk's political vehicle, this week [13]launched a campaign that offers $47 to people who refer voters to sign a petition.
The New York Times [14]article about that campaign quotes campaign finance lawyer Brendan Fischer as saying it is legal. On X, Fischer [15]wrote : "America PAC is ultimately spending money for voter data, which PACs and campaigns do all the time … but typically political groups pay just a few pennies per name, not $47 each."
[16]
CAH's campaign is clearly not paying for votes. We asked the org to explain its legal position, but have not received a reply at the time of publication.
But for what it is worth, CAH's campaign website detects visitors' locations and if they are outside the US does not allow them to purchase the expansion pack. That's a nod to US law that prohibits foreigners from making political donations – and the fact that buying the cards is technically not a purchase but a donation to the CAH Super PAC.
Personal data is no joke
The campaign's goal is obvious: prodding people to vote for anyone other than Donald Trump. But a bonus is spotlighting how easy it was for CAH to obtain personal data.
[17]
Data pulled on a voter from the CAH website – Click to enlarge
Put your phone number into the site, along with a few personal details, and it spits back party registration, whether or not you voted, and your political lean, among other data points.
To quote CAH, "It's pretty f**ked up."
"We formed a Super PAC and bought the personal voting records of every American citizen from a data broker we found on the internet," the game publisher wrote. "We got your partisan lean from the same data broker who sold us your voting history. You wouldn't believe how easy it was for us to get this stuff."
Data brokers – who scrape, harvest, buy and compile all sorts of personal data into dossiers that are ideally anonymized (but obviously aren't always, as in this case) – have been the bane of privacy advocates for years, and consumer groups have [18]long fought to restrict their activities and ability to access sensitive information such as [19]attitudes to abortion .
Congress has [20]passed a bill to ban foreign companies or apps from buying data that describes US consumers, but an [21]attempt to bar the US government from doing so has faced opposition from the Biden administration and appears dead in the US Senate.
Maybe the election – and the campaigns from CAH and America PAC – will change that. ®
Get our [22]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.apologize.lol/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zwii8TK4FuHbq-6fef4DdAAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/detail?cmte=C00885426&cycle=2024
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zwii8TK4FuHbq-6fef4DdAAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zwii8TK4FuHbq-6fef4DdAAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zwii8TK4FuHbq-6fef4DdAAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/15/infosec_in_brief/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/08/election_tech_is_fine_says/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/08/free_starlink_hurricane_helene/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/28/grok_election_misinformation/
[11] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2010-title42/html/USCODE-2010-title42-chap20-subchapI-A-sec1973i.htm#:~:text=No%20person%2C%20whether%20acting%20under,or%20aiding%20any%20person%20to
[12] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/597
[13] https://x.com/america/status/1842978982444322816
[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/us/politics/elon-musk-47-dollars-petition.html
[15] https://x.com/brendan_fischer/status/1843488550291157244
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zwii8TK4FuHbq-6fef4DdAAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/10/10/cah-voting-data-results.jpg
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/15/cfpb_data_broker_crackdown/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/15/data_broker_location_abortion/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/congress_votes_unanimously_to_ban/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/18/congress_data_broker_surveillance/
[22] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "We formed a Super PAC and bought the personal voting records of EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN..."
Flocke Kroes
In this context, "voting records" means which elections a person voted - not who they voted for. Separate to that is a guess at who they voted for based on things like what news they read, social media posts, age and education. If you act like a monster raving loony data brokers will record that as your political lean even if you regularly vote for the Party Party.
Re: "We formed a Super PAC and bought the personal voting records of EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN..."
Anonymous Coward
Indeed! In at least one state, certain uses of voting records are criminal (RCW 29A.08.740 in Washington). I have a feeling that the activities of a Super PAC are viewed as being inherently political enough to allow the data broker to hand that information over without any real risk.
While I think there's a need for this kind of information to be available to the public for auditability purposes, data brokers give me the same kind of heebie-jeebies as patent trolls.
Re: "We formed a Super PAC and bought the personal voting records of EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN..."
dmesg
In the US, your vote is secret, but the fact that you voted (and where and when) is public information, and for good reason. Imagine the possible abuses if it was not: No way to know if the number of ballots counted equals the number of voters who cast one; No way to detect if someone voted in multiple jurisdictions.
Link?
Gene Cash
I didn't find anywhere to put my phone number into the site. I was hoping to see if it was accurate or not.
Re: Link?
Anonymous Coward
I wanted to put my son's one in.
Is threatening to disinherit him breaking election law?
Is it foreign influence when I'm not a US citizen?
Anyone but Kamala
Anonymous Coward
Trump 45/47
"We formed a Super PAC and bought the personal voting records of EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN..."
From the article:
"..."We formed a Super PAC and bought the personal voting records of every American citizen from a data broker we found on the internet," the game publisher wrote. "We got your partisan lean from the same data broker who sold us your voting history. You wouldn't believe how easy it was for us to get this stuff."..."
Call me naive, but I have always been under the impression that a person's vote, in the USA at any rate, was secret...and that particular brand of secrecy is / was sacrosanct.
How would a 'data broker' get anyone's voting history, unless that 'anyone' had not indulged in that national and world-wide all-consuming full-time pastime (now) of blabbing one's guts out to anyone and everyone on Facebook...about anything and everything.